Deep Blue Freedom

Episode Transcript

Narration: Welcome to VisionFree Diving. Episode 2: Safe Scuba and Diveheart. VisionFree Diving was created to share the passion for Scuba diving and to raise awareness for it as a viable and enriching sport for people with disabilities, especially those who are blind or visually-impaired.
Andrew: Hi, this is Andrew Meyer and during the next three episodes, we will be looking in great detail at the three organizations that provide scuba training for people with disabilities, but first, let me introduce you to two of my friends and their instructor. So take a deep breath and close your eyes. This is VisionFree Diving!

Josh: Hi everyone. My name is Josh.
Kim: My name is Kim.
Dale: My name is Dale Kleier.
Narration: Josh and Kim have been both totally blind from birth as a result of Retinopathy of Prematurity, a condition in which a newborn is given too much oxygen in the incubator causing the retna to detach from the optic nerve.
Narration:Dale lives in Hillsboro and owns a PADI and Naui dive shop called Scuba Adventures for Everyone an is the founder of Scuba Access for Everyone, a non-profit organization that offers adaptive scuba training to people with disabilities. Though Dale has taught people with a wide range of disabilities, Josh and Kim are his first totally blind students.
Josh: I was looking for a challenge. I was looking for something new, something different I had never done before.
Kim: When you're in the pool and you have the regulator in your mouth and you take that first breath...
Josh: It was a really new, freeing experience.
Narration: During a family trip to Mexico's Playa Del Carmen in 2010, Dale's brother encouraged him to try scuba diving. Dale became open water certified and when he returned to the Pacific Northwest, he enrolled in every scuba course available and subsequently became a dive master and then a scuba instructor. and at the time of this recording, has almost 2000 dives.
Dale: Well I would tell you that when I was first and instructor, I met a young gentleman that was just totally enthusiastic about diving, diving every week and taking every class, he even got my wife to take more classes. I knew he just got out of the military and he was going to go off to college and I offered him that he could stay in a room with us and it would only cost him ten dollars more and it could help him save money for college. I'll never forget to this day the scared, stark look this gentleman gave me... To make a long story short, at that time, he had a lot of post traumatic stress and he was waking up with nightmares and waking up swinging and he was afraid that he might hurt myself or my wife. I guess what was totally amazing to me was that I had been around this gentleman for five to six months and didn't even know. There was nothing that showed me that he even had that. This opened up him sharing to me and everything else. We can't see people sometimes when they are suffering inside, but the diving was what was really his freedom from the war and getting him back in line. And since this, I've known this gentleman for 12 years, he finished his four years of college and went to law school, passed the bar. He's married, has a five-year-old kid and the one thing that was his glue through all this was the diving. It was quiet, he felt protected and now over the twelve years, his post traumatic stress has really really gone down and he's not as scared as he used to be. There was another young gentleman with autism that I taught when I was at another place and he too had his trials and things but in the long run, we got him certified and it was the first thing he accomplished in his life on his own. He was thirteen and now he is nineteen. After those two experiences
I went and asked my friends and my buddies and all the divers that I know if I was crazy or not and what I found out in my conversations was everybody knew somebody with some sort of disability, be it in a chair or whatever and it really opened up my eyes and after talking to all these people, they all wanted to help and jump aboard so then that's when I started my foundation and became an instructor for disabilities.
Josh: It's not our disability that defines us. It's our ability! It's our ability to adapt, our ability to understand things.
Narration: When asked what skill or technique they struggle with, Josh and Kim had completely different answers.
Kim: The hand signals, They're... they're hard.
Josh: I'd say for me personally right now, knowing how far I've descended and ascended.
Narration: Dale has had to rethink how he teaches. Since Josh and Kim cannot visually watch him demonstrate the techniques, he has learned to be more tactile and physically show Josh and Kim what he wants them to do. He's not only teaching Josh and Kim but Josh and Kim are teaching him.

Narration: About 10 years ago, Jim Elliott, a former HSA instructor and proud father of a visually-impaired daughter, left the media industry and founded a non-profit organization with a goal to teach adaptive scuba diving and Diveheart was born. "I used to be an HSA instructor" (Handicap Scuba Association), he remarked over a Zoom call, "But I found it wasn't sufficient." he went on to describe how he came to develop Diveheart's system of adaptive scuba diving and how it grew rapidly. "I thought it was just going to be a small group, like the blind skiing club I work with, but Diveheart exploded and now we are international.", he stated proudly.

At the core of Diveheart's system is a concept which they refer to as the "adaptive dive team." An adaptive dive team is composed of the diver with the disability, referred to as the "adaptive diver" and two Diveheart certified adaptive dive buddies, at least one of which must be an an advanced dive buddy. Overseeing the adaptive dive team is a Diveheart instructor. Jim was emphatic on the Zoom call when he told Josh and Kim that diving with at least two dive buddies is not optional. He justified the policy as being "a safety thing", but did not elaborate.

Diveheart is the only one of the three associations that we are familiar with that puts all of its handicap divers into one basket by stipulating people with disabilities must dive with a minimum of two buddies. The other organizations allow their handicap divers to prove whether or not they need one, two or more buddies to accompany them in the water and each handicap diver is considered on a case by case basis. We will of course highlight the other organizations in future episodes.

The training program for an adaptive diver is simple and straight forward. Each adaptive diver begins a course with a PADI, Naui, or even SDI instructor, using the same materials that non-disabled divers would use during an open water course. IF the adaptive diver can complete all of the required course work and prove they are competent performing all of the skills and techniques of their respective organizations, then they simply receive certification through them. However, if they are unable to complete the course, then the adaptive diver is refered to the Diveheart program. Once refered to Diveheart, they do not receive an open water certification. Instead, they receive additional training on how Diveheart integrates adaptive divers into an adaptive dive team and are then only certified by Diveheart to dive with adaptive dive buddies from Diveheart.

There is only a single course for Diveheart adaptive divers. After obtaining certification, adaptive divers have no clear path for additional training. When asked if he believes blind or visually-impaired divers are capable of receiving EFR (emergency first response) training, Jim Elliott replied, "I don't see why a blind person could not do everything required for EFR." However, Diveheart's website reveals nothing about how an adaptive diver could become EFR certified and as far as we are aware, in order to enroll in an EFR certification course through PADI, one must be at the very minimum open water certified.

On the other hand, Diveheart adaptive dive buddies have a series of courses available to them to build and improve upon their skills. As outlined on Diveheart's website, Diveheart adaptive buddy training consists of three parts: a manual, e-learning course and a practical section. Diveheart manuals can be purchased on Amazon.com or through the dive center slash instructor and are available in either English or Spanish. If an adaptive dive candidate possesses PADI rescue diver or equivalent certification, they are permitted to enroll directly in the advanced adaptive buddy course. The following are the prerequisite for the adaptive dive buddy course:
* Minimum of 15 years old
* Certified Open Water diver, or equivalent, with at least 20 logged dives
* Been diving, or taken a refresher course, in the past two years
* Have current CPR/First Aid/AED training (must be good through the entire course)
* Comfortable performing all of Diveheart’s Buddy Tune-Up Skills PRIOR to attending the practical portion of the course
* Proficient in scuba skills including buoyancy control (RECOMMENDED that candidate has completed a Buoyancy Control Course).

Diveheart advanced buddies receive additional training. Upon completion of the course and obtaining certification, advanced adaptive dive buddies are qualified to lead adaptive dive teams in the water. Here are the prerequisites for the advanced adaptive dive buddy course:
* Minimum of 18 years old
* Minimum of Certified Rescue Diver, or equivalent, with at least 40 logged dives
* Been diving, or taken a refresher course, in the past two years
* Have current CPR/First Aid/AED training (must be good through the entire course)
* Comfortable performing all of Diveheart’s Buddy Tune-Up Skills PRIOR to attending the practical portion of the course
* RECOMMENDED that candidate has a Full Face Mask Certification.

In addition to these prerequisites, advanced adaptive dive buddies must complete 30 logged dives with an adaptive diver, fifteen of which must be in open water.

Diveheart instructors are qualified to train adaptive divers, adaptive dive buddies and advanced adaptive dive buddies and here are the prerequisites for enrolling in the Diveheart instructor course:
* Minimum of 18 years old
* Diveheart Advanced Adaptive Dive Buddy certification, which can be taken at the same time as this course
* Minimum certification of an active, teaching status instructor with a recognized recreational agency,
* Have current professional Liability Insurance
* Been teaching scuba courses, or diving, or taken a refresher course in the past two years
* Have current CPR/First Aid/AED training (must be good through the entire course) OR be certified and in teaching status as an instructor for these certifications
* Comfortable performing all of Diveheart’s Buddy Tune-Up Skills PRIOR to attending the practical portion of the course,
* RECOMMENDED that candidate has a Full Face Mask Certification or Specialty Instructor Certification.

As with the advanced adaptive diver certification, Diveheart Instructors are required to have 30 logged dives with an adaptive diver and at least fifteen must be in open water. If the candidate is already certified as an advanced adaptive dive buddy, then they have met this requirement.

All Diveheart courses and associated prerequisites can be found on their website at diveheart.org, as well as additional information.

In typical dive teams, each member of the dive team is responsible for the other members and is trained what to do in simple emergencies to assist the other dive members. Senarios range from sharing air if someone signals they are low on air or have no air at all, to the most severe cases in which a diver falls unconscious and needs assistance ascending to the surface. From what we understand of the adaptive dive team, they will never have a senario in which the adaptive diver is left alone in the water. When Mr. Elliott was asked what are adaptive divers trained to do if one of the dive buddies experiences a problem and the second dive buddy is forced to assist the other dive buddy to the surface, he was quick to state that it will never happen. "We will never leave the adaptive dive buddy in the water.", he declared. "They will find a way to get the adaptive dive team to the surface.

In closing, we present the same senario that Jim Elliott himself presented during the Zoom call. As a blind or visually-impaired diver, let us pretend that you are at a depth of 30 meters (100 feet and are diving with just one dive buddy. Without warning, your dive buddy blows a high pressure valve and is sent rocketing to the surface. What do you do in this senario? Diveheart's answer is simple. They will never have this senario, due to the fact that Diveheart adaptive dive teams always consist of at least three or more people. They do not give their adaptive divers the opportunity to be trained with the skills necessary to handle this type of emergency.

Now it's your turn! We'd like to hear from our listeners. As blind or visually-impaired divers or dive instructors, how do you feel about this? To everyone, Do you think blind or visually-impaired people should have the opportunity to learn how to correctly handle this kind of emergency or is Diveheart's policy the correct one? If you feel blind and visually-impaired people should be able to learn how to correctly deal with a crisis such as this, what exactly should they be trained to do? If not, tell us why Diveheart's policy is the best option. Please send your response to diving@visionfreeaccess.net and we look forward to hearing from you.

VisionFree Diving was created to share the passion for scuba diving and to raise awareness of the benefits it offers those with disabilities, but especially for the blind and visually-impaired. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it. The show notes, full transcript and more information about each guest on the podcast can be found at VisionFreeDiving. transistor.fm. Questions and feedback can be sent to diving@visionfreeaccess.net. Until next time, happy diving!